Barrett, Rosa (Mary)
Barrett, Rosa (Mary) (1854–1936) philanthropist, child-care worker, and suffragist, was born 15 January 1854 in Royston, Hertfordshire, England, daughter of the Rev. W. G. Barrett and Martha Barrett (née Fletcher). From the 1860s she was resident with her family in Dublin. Her…...
Bentham, Ethel
Bentham, Ethel (1861–1931), doctor and MP, was born 5 January 1861 in London, second daughter of William Bentham (an inspector, secretary, and later general manager with the Standard Life Assurance Company in London) and Mary Ann Bentham (née Hammond). Her father, a quaker, was…...
Byers, Margaret
Byers, Margaret (1832–1912), educationist, suffragist, and philanthropist, was born 15 April 1832 in Windsor Hill, Rathfriland, Co. Down, fourth child and only daughter of Andrew Morrow , farmer and mill operator, and Margaret Morrow (née Herron). After the death (c.1840…...
Carlile, Anne Jane
Carlile, Anne Jane (1775–1864), temperance pioneer and philanthropist, was born 8 April 1775 in Rooskey, Co. Monaghan, the youngest child of David Hamill , a farmer and linen merchant, and Martha Hamill (née Armstrong). Both her father and her brother John were connected with the…...
Duffin, Emma Sylvia
Duffin, Emma Sylvia (1883–1979), nurse, diarist and welfare worker, was born 8 November 1883 in Belfast, fourth daughter in a family of seven daughters and two sons of Adam Duffin (qv) and Maria Duffin (née Drennan). The family was well-to-do…...
Firth, Virginia Arabella ('Gay')
Firth, Virginia Arabella ('Gay') (1937–2005), author, journalist and political campaigner, was born in Belfast on 9 January 1937, the eldest of three daughters of Lancelot Turtle, a Belfast businessman and stockbroker, and Helen Ramsey Turtle (1911–46), born in Denver, Colorado,…...
Gordon (Marjoribanks), Dame Ishbel Maria
Gordon (Marjoribanks), Dame Ishbel Maria (1857–1939), marchioness of Aberdeen and Temair, philanthropist, was born 14 March 1857 in London, daughter of Dudley Marjoribanks, 1st Baron Tweedmouth, banker and liberal MP, and his wife, Isobel Marjoribanks (née Hogg), who belonged to the…...
Haslam, Anna Maria
Haslam, Anna Maria (1829–1922), campaigner for women's rights, was born Anna Fisher at Youghal, Co. Cork, in April 1829, the sixteenth of seventeen children (there were, besides her, eight boys and eight girls) of Abraham Fisher (1783–1871), miller, philanthropist, and insurance…...
Jackson, Elizabeth
Jackson, Elizabeth (c.1740–1781), US patriot and mother of President Andrew Jackson, was born in or near the town of Carrickfergus, Co. Antrim. Her father's name was Hutchinson, but this is all we know for certain of her parents. Some sources claim that his name was Francis…...
Jacob, Rosamond
Jacob, Rosamond (1888–1960), suffragist, republican, and writer, was born 13 October 1888 in Waterford city, third child of Louis Jacob (1841–1907) and Henrietta Jacob (née Harvey; 1849–1919). Louis Jacob worked in his father-in-law's house-agent and stockbroking firm in Waterford. Both…...
Johnston (Johnston-Liik ), Edith Mary
Johnston (Johnston-Liik ), Edith Mary (1930–2008), historian and editor, was born 11 July 1930 in Belfast, eldest of three daughters of John Worthington Johnston (1904–52), athlete, presbyterian minister and army chaplain, and his wife Mary Isobel Giraud (née McFadden); a son died at…...
Lonsdale, Kathleen
Lonsdale, Kathleen (1903–71), X-ray crystallographer and pacifist, was born 28 January 1903 in Charlotte House, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, youngest among ten children of Henry Frederick Yardley (d. 1923), an English-born former soldier and postmaster of Newbridge, and his wife Jessie…...
Magee, Martha Maria
Magee, Martha Maria (d. 1846), benefactor, was born in Lurgan, Co. Antrim. She was the granddaughter of a clergyman, the Rev. William Holmes of Antrim. In 1780 she married Lurgan's presbyterian minister, William Magee, with whom she had two sons, but was left in straitened…...
McConnell, Mabel Washington
This is a co-subject for the entry on FitzGerald, (Thomas Joseph) Desmond. View the original entry....
McCoubrey (Morrison), Margaret
McCoubrey (Morrison), Margaret (1880–1956), suffragist and political activist, was born Margaret Mearns Morrison in Elderslie, Renfrewshire, near Glasgow, on 5 January 1880, one of two daughters and a son of William Morrison, labourer, and his wife Elizabeth. Her mother had three…...
McCracken, Mary Ann
McCracken, Mary Ann (1770–1866), radical and philanthropist, was born 8 July 1770 in Belfast, younger daughter and fifth of the six children of Capt. John McCracken (c.1719–1803), a prosperous merchant of Belfast, and his wife Ann (c.1730–1814), daughter of…...
McMordie, Julia
McMordie, Julia (1860–1942), philanthropist and politician, was born 30 March 1860 in Hartlepool, Co. Durham, England, fifth daughter of Sir William Gray , shipbuilder and shipowner, and his wife Dorothy (d. 1906), daughter of Capt. John Hall. A presbyterian, she was educated at…...
McTier, Martha
McTier, Martha (1742–1837), writer of letters, was eldest of the three surviving children of the Rev. Thomas Drennan (qv), non-subscribing presbyterian minister of Belfast, and his wife Ann Lennox (c.1719–1806), daughter of a wealthy Belfast merchant…...
Mitchel, Jane (‘Jenny’)
Mitchel, Jane (‘Jenny’) (c.1820–1899), nationalist, was born near Newry, Co. Down, where she, her brother, and her mother Mary Ward lived with Capt. James Verner (1777–1847), an attorney, formerly of the 19th Light Dragoons. The Verners were a well established Armagh…...
Nicholson, Asenath
Nicholson, Asenath (1792–1855), traveller and social reformer, was born 24 February 1792, youngest child and only daughter among three children of Michael Hatch (c.1747–1830), farmer, and his wife, Martha (maiden name unknown; 1745–1837), in Chelsea, Vermont, USA. Educated at…...
Perry (Shaw), Alice Jacqueline
Perry (Shaw), Alice Jacqueline (1885–1969), engineer and Christian Scientist, was born in Wellpark, Co. Galway, one of five daughters and one son of James Perry, engineer and county surveyor for Galway, originally from Garvagh, Co. Londonderry, and Martha Perry (née Park), from…...
Pim (later Grubb), Sarah
Pim (later Grubb), Sarah (1746–1832), and her brothers Joshua Pim and Joseph Pike Pim, entrepreneurs, were among the sixteen children of John Pim, quaker businessman of Mountrath, Queen's Co. (Laois), and his wife Sarah (née Clibborn), who was also of a quaker family from Moate, Co.…...
Pinkerton, Emily (Emilie) Cordner-
Pinkerton, Emily (Emilie) Cordner- (c.1859–1902), publisher, was born probably in Newry, Co. Down, where her parents, William Henry Cordner (d. 1890) and Matilda Cordner (née McCracken), had a jewellery and watchmaker's shop. There were also at least three sons in the family…...
Shackleton, Lydia
Shackleton, Lydia (1828–1914), botanical artist, teacher, and poet, was born 22 November 1828, at Griesemount, Ballitore, Co. Kildare, the third eldest of thirteen children of George Shackleton, a miller, and Hannah Shackleton (née Fisher). Her forebear…...
Tod, Isabella Maria Susan
Tod, Isabella Maria Susan (1836–96), feminist and reformer, was born 18 May 1836 in Edinburgh, daughter of James Banks Tod, merchant, and Maria Isabella Tod (née Waddell). There was at least one other child, a brother who became a prosperous merchant in London. Tod seems to have had no…...